Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders appeared Wednesday at a mosque less than two miles from the White House, where he was joined by religious leaders of varied faiths to strongly "condemn the anti-Muslim rhetoric and hatred" inspired by Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

The Vermont senator's appearance at the Masjid Muhammad mosque, founded in the mid-1930s, came in the wake of Trump's proposal to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the country, a move he has said is needed to keep citizens safe from terrorism.

Sanders suggested that such sentiments were consistent with "centuries of bigotry and discrimination, sometimes with unspeakable results."